Smoking Kids by Frieke Janssens

Smoking Kids by Frieke Janssens is as beautiful as it is shocking. Inspired by a youtube video of a smoking Indonesian toddler, Janssens realized that in order to isolate the issue of smoking as severely detrimental to one’s health, he needed to remove the bad habit from its comfort zone. Generally, we all get a case of the ‘awwwwws’ when we see children playing dress up, but Janssens hauntingly dystopian view of our youth’s future knocks the innocence right out of this photo series.

Appearing tired and completely spent, each photograph contrasts our predetermined notion of exuberant youth, replacing wide-eyed enthusiasm and bountiful energy with overdeveloped ego’s and cases of depression. Smoking Kids is both a wonderful work of art, and engaging criticism towards societal norms.